CHARLOTTE’S NEXT STEP
The wee princess is growing up!
Starting preschool is a big milestone in the life of any youngster and Princess Charlotte is no exception.
Her mum, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, took great pride in capturing the moment as her daughter headed off for her first day at Willcocks Nursery School. She photographed the beaming two-year-old on a set of steps at Kensington Palace and if Charlotte’s smile is anything to go by, she had no qualms about going off on her new adventure.
Palace sources say the princess will be a full-time pupil at the nursery, which charges fees of around $17,300 a year for children who attend its Monday to Friday morning school and $10,200 for those who go in the afternoons. But they haven’t elaborated on whether she’ll be attending morning or afternoon sessions, or both.
Charlotte is the first royal to go to Willcocks, which is just a 10-minute drive from her home at Kensington Palace and has been described by society magazine Tatler as “a hidden gem”. Activities include poetry, singing, acting and jigsaw making, while children also start to learn to read and write.
Her big brother Prince George
(4) attended the Westacre Montessori School in Norfolk, starting in January 2016, as it was close to the family’s country home, Anmer Hall, where they were then based. He’s now a pupil at Thomas’s Battersea School, where he started in September.
Kate (36) missed George’s first day at school due to severe morning sickness, but was on hand to witness Charlotte’s big day and document it. In the past, several photos taken by the duchess, who is a keen amateur photographer, have been released by Kensington Palace to mark milestones in her children’s lives. Kate bucked tradition when she took the first official shots of her newborn daughter in 2015.
The most recent official photo of Charlotte before these shots showed her with her parents and brother, and was released in time for Christmas. But it was taken back in July, and in the intervening six months Charlotte, who will turn three in May, looks so much more grown up.
She also looks more like her great-grandmother, the Queen, than ever. Comparisons have been made between the newest member of the royal family and Her Majesty as a child since Charlotte was little, but these recent shots really highlight the similarities in appearance. They both have the same chubby cheeks, cheeky grin and their matching blue eyes are a similar shape.